CAIRO (AFP) — The U.S. State Department’s number two was to sit down Wednesday with Muslim Brotherhood party leaders, as Egypt prepared to wrap up marathon elections that propelled Islamists to the centre stage of politics.

Washington has been reaching out to the Brotherhood in a nod to Egypt’s new political reality, with Islamists poised to dominate the first parliament since a popular uprising ousted veteran president Hosni Mubarak in February.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns “will meet leaders of the (Brotherhood’s) Freedom and Justice Party at their headquarters in Cairo,” FJP spokesman Ahmed Sobea told AFP.

“It will be the highest-level meeting with any official from the United States,” Sobea said.